Awareness

Enlightenment, the Awakening of ConsciousnessWhen consciousness realizes itself to be both the transcendent Beingness of all things and the immanent Selfhood of the individual, consciousness is fully awakened and self-aware. This occurs when we awaken to it individually in the experience referred to as mystical enlightenment, spiritual illumination, satori, Self-realization, God-realization, cosmic consciousness, or unity consciousness (to name a few descriptive terms).

[Aknowledgments to Sadhguru and the Isha Foundation for posting the YouTube videos above of Sadhguru.]

Enlightenment is fundamentally the workings and the result of a process (call it life or mind) that is applied to an input-output content, in accordance with the overall, larger context in which the process is operating and by which the content is determined and derived.

The Process of Spiritual AwakeningPlease pause here to watch the slide presentation below.

A Paradigm and Model for The Spiritual Journey

In our outward-facing everyday human awareness or external human life, the process is one of constantly “becoming” — the thinking, feeling, speaking, acting, and doing we engage in daily as human beings. We feed the process with our inputs of humanhood (good and bad humanhood) through the conditioned human mind. In return, the process provides us with more of our humanhood together with all its attendant suffering. Thus, we find ourselves caught in a “catch-22” situation where we live out the same human condition endlessly day after day after day, just like in the movie Groundhog Day. Our typical human experience of life is the result of this kind of content processing. All that takes place within the overall context of the human condition — the human state of consciousness.

However, when it comes to living our inner soul life or, more precisely, the life of the Spirit, a change occurs in the process: The process becomes one of “being” for which a spiritual awakening would have begun. Furthermore, since there is no “becoming” to the process, an interruption and reversal also occurs in the process: The continued processing output of our humanhood ceases; whereby the principles of mystical oneness (the Truth teaching) are introduced as new content and fed into the processing system instead. The process is radically altered and transformed in such a manner as would then reveal the contextual reality of the oneness embodied in the new, mystical content. Over the course of the transformation and thereafter, the process will eventually serve as a continuous back and forth, open freeway channel for the flow of spiritual energy between the Unmanifest and the Manifest dimensions of being.

The inward journey of contemplation or meditation, specifically contemplative meditation practice, is the PROCESS for spiritual enlightenment and transformation. The consciousness of Truth (the Christ) embodied in the teachings of mysticism is the CONTENT we take into the process. And the realization of this Truth and its oneness is the CONTEXT we seek to know, experience and understand both as the source/origin and the end of our total life process and as the fullness of our content. When the context of Truth is realized, the process will have effected a shift in the consciousness of the individual — from the human state to the unitive state known as the consciousness of the Christ, the Buddha, or Krishna.

[Aknowledgment to OSHOInternational for the YouTube video above of Osho.]

Here are some video presentations on the awakening of consciousness. They present the dynamics of consciousness working in, through, and as the energy that is mind. They explain the urgent need for spiritual enlightenment at this particular point in our evolutionary development and divine unfoldment.

[Acknowledgment: Thanks to HairyCookieMunster for the YouTube video above on “awakening.”]

[Acknowledgment: Thanks to missSerenityk for the YouTube video above.]

Below is a four-part exposition on the subject of unity consciousness, which you can view and contemplate on.

[Acknowledgment to FreedomOfTheSoul for the YouTube video above on unity consciousness.]

Uroboros: Serpent biting its own tail to form a closed circle.

The mind in which individual consciousness is fully awake functions as the Buddha Mind or the Christ Mind. It is a spiritually transformed mind — an unconditioned mind functioning as the infinite, divine mind of the Spirit. Such a mind mirrors its own pristine undisturbed purity and reflects the integral wholeness that consciousness actually is. It is symbolized by the Uroborus, the serpent biting its own tail to form a closed circle of infinity with no beginning and end. It is also represented in numerology by the number 10: the One (1) that is the All (0). The enlightened mind of one individual human being benefits all others within the collective race consciousness.

And I, if “I” be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.(Yeshua, The Gospel according to John 12:32, NASB77)

Here is an interesting podcast from a Radiolab program episode titled “Who Am I?” The program explores the concepts of mind and self. Click on the image below to listen to the podcast at the Radiolab website.

It Is a Mystery!You can watch an informative documentary on Consciousness titled “Mystery of Consciousness” The documentary explains why Consciousness is such a mystery through a sampling of current thinking on the subject as viewed by various disciplines. Click on the image below to watch the documentary.

You can watch the following BBC documentary if it is available at your location, and see how science is trying to understand awareness in the course of its search for consciousness.

Consciousness is a mystery that cannot be fathomed by the finite human mind particularly through the workings of the intellect mind. However, Consciousness is not beyond individual experience. In truth, Consciousness is meant to be experienced by sentient beings through all its infinite aspects and manifestations, including its own self-aware aspect and individuation. It is the Self contemplating itself.

Consciousness simply IS!

Being infinite in nature, Consciousness is forever unfolding infinitely.

Consciousness is the greatest mystery there is. ENTER THE MYSTERY.

[Aknowledgment to StudyYourself for the YouTube audio-visual piece above of Alan Watts’ talk.]

[Note: This subpage and its related subpages under the topic of Consciousness, Mind and Awareness will remain in a state of ongoing development and unfoldment, just like Consciousness, itself. The progress and direction of its growth will be determined not only by current research studies and findings but also by your comments and posts on this page. Please share your thoughts with us below, or send us your comments in a message using the footer widget for contacting us.]

I caught the happy virus last night
When I was out singing beneath the stars
It is remarkably contagious —
So kiss me.– Hafiz, Sufi Mystic –

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